Al-Kindi

(c. 801 - c. 870)

Oil painting portrair Michel de Montaigne in red robes and white collar

Michel de Montaigne

(1533 - 1592)

photograph of David Foster Wallace speaking at a podium

David Foster Wallace

(1962 - 2008)

Elizabeth Blackwell

(1821 - 1910)

Depiction of German abbess and mystic St. Hildegard.

Hildegard of Bingen

(1098 - 1179)

Andrew Blackbird

(c. 1815 - 1908)

American writer William Styron.

William Styron

(1925 - 2006)

James Orbinski

Surgeon and author Richard Selzer.

Richard Selzer

(1928 - 2016)

John Barth

Photograph of English poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling.

Rudyard Kipling

(1865 - 1936)

American novelist and short story writer Bernard Cooper.

Bernard Cooper

Noga Arikha

Black and white photograph of scholar, novelist, and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis.

C.S. Lewis

(1898 - 1963)

English art historian, novelist and journalist Iain Pears.

Iain Pears

Dorothea Dix

(1802 - 1887)

Black and white photograph of British writer Doris Lessing.

Doris Lessing

(1919 - 2013)

Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf

(1882 - 1941)

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato

(c. 427 BC - c. 347 BC)

John Wesley

(1703 - 1791)

Li Zhisui

(1919 - 1995)

Susan Sontag

(1933 - 2004)

American writer and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich.

Barbara Ehrenreich

(1941 - 2022)

Black and white photograph of American writer and critic Anatole Broyard.

Anatole Broyard

(1920 - 1990)

Quintus Serenus Sammonicus

Photograph of American clinical psychologist and writer Kay Redfield Jamison.

Kay Redfield Jamison

Italian poet and librettist Felice Romani.

Felice Romani

(1788 - 1865)

Felix Platter

(1536 - 1614)

English writer Jerome K. Jerome.

Jerome K. Jerome

(1859 - 1927)

Black and white image of Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca the Younger.

Seneca the Younger

(4 BC - 65)

Louisa May Alcott

(1832 - 1888)

Ken Kesey

(1935 - 2001)

American poet William Carlos Williams.

William Carlos Williams

(1883 - 1963)

Jonathan Lyons

Mimnermus

(c. 630 BC - c. 600 BC)

Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates.

Hippocrates

(c. 460 BC - c. 375 BC)

Photograph of Soviet playwright and writer Mikhail Bulgakov.

Mikhail Bulgakov

(1891 - 1940)

Black and white photograph of Alsatian-German winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Albert Schweitzer.

Albert Schweitzer

(1875 - 1965)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

(1935 - 2024)

Color photograph of Oliver Sacks with a white beard and glasses.

Oliver Sacks

(1933 - 2015)

Louis Pasteur

(1822 - 1895)

Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician Moses Maimonides.

Moses Maimonides

(1135 - 1204)

Founder of the Macrobiotic diet and philosophy George Ohsawa.

George Ohsawa

(1893 - 1966)

English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell.

George Orwell

(1903 - 1950)

Daniel Defoe

(1660 - 1731)

Atul Gawande

Jacques Ferrand

(c. 1575 - c. 1620)

Color portrait of English poet John Donne.

John Donne

(1572 - 1631)

Paddy Chayefsky

(1923 - 1981)

Image of Chinese poet Bai Juyi.

Bai Juyi

(772 - 846)

Jean-Dominique Bauby

(1952 - 1997)

Portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky

(1821 - 1881)

black and white pencil drawing of Moliere in an ornate frame

Molière

(1622 - 1673)

Joan Didion

(1934 - 2021)

Black and white photograph of Emily Dickinson sitting next to a desk.

Emily Dickinson

(1830 - 1886)

Black and white photograph of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud with cigar.

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1949)

Portrait of English essayist and critic Thomas De Quincey.

Thomas De Quincey

(1785 - 1859)

Hammurabi

(1810 BC - 1750 BC)

Photograph of Marcel Proust looking pensive.

Marcel Proust

(1871 - 1922)

Sinclair Lewis

(1885 - 1951)

Black and white photograph of John Crowley sitting on a porch.

John Crowley

Soranus

(c. 150 - c. 200)

Meehan Crist

Meehan Crist

Andreas Vesalius

(1514 - 1564)

Persian philosopher and scientist Avicenna.

Avicenna

(980 - 1037)

Greek physician, writer, and philosopher Galen.

Galen

(129 - c. 216)

Painting of humanist and scholar Erasmus.

Erasmus

(1466 - 1536)

Iain Bamforth

Classical bust of Thucydides.

Thucydides

(c. 460 BC - c. 404 BC)

Fanny Burney

(1752 - 1840)